FAMILY TREE TALK: Will this year be your lucky 13?

Friday

Jan 4, 2013 at 11:08 PMJan 4, 2013 at 11:17 PM

I’m planning a good 2013 (or course, much of that doesn’t have anything to do with what I want). Since I retired a few months ago I am starting to have a little more free time to work on my genealogy, and I plan to get a lot done this year.

Jim Moses

I’m planning a good 2013 (or course, much of that doesn’t have anything to do with what I want). Since I retired a few months ago I am starting to have a little more free time to work on my genealogy, and I plan to get a lot done this year.

I have access to ancestry.com and familysearch.org so I have been able to find lots of new information. Some of it is really good and has helped me, but sometimes that information can’t be trusted.

I like ancestry, but sometimes the family trees on their site which are not well done. When I look at those family trees I must remember that they might not be based on actual records, or maybe they are based on records, but the research wasn’t complete. For example, I was looking at one today, and I decided not to use it because one of the sons was born almost 50 years before either parent (quite a difficult thing to do, if you ask me) and in another part of the same tree I found a daughter who was born when her mother was 100 years old (probably not as difficult as being born before your mother, but certainly unlikely).

Remember, it might not be true just because it is in print (or on the Internet).When I do my research by looking at the actual records (and there are millions of them on each Website) I can, if I am careful, build links to my own family that fit all the facts. My goal is to have everything as accurate as possible, so I try to check against as many sources as I can. For example, I’ll try to verify a fact by looking at birth, marriage and death records, as well as various census records for the same person. If they all agree, probably everything is good.

Since this is the beginning of another year, have you made any genealogy resolutions? I just reviewed my lists from the past few years, and I haven’t done very well. Hopefully I can get some of those things done in 2013.

I have organized all my folders for the people in my family history program, and now I am putting all those thousands of records in the folders. The hardest part is cross-referencing them. I’m doing things like placing census records in the folders for the head of household, and then making a note of that on the index page for that folder, but I’m also putting a note about the location of the census record in the folder for each person in the family.

When I get done I’ll have something like: a note in Charles Kelley’s folder saying that the 1880 census is there (and then making sure it is), and a note in his wife’s folder and the folders for each of the children mentioned on the same record saying that the record is in Charles’ folder. That takes a lot of time, but it will be worth it when I am trying to find something later.

One resolution that we could all make (I am planning on doing this if at all possible) is to go to the first Saturday of open hours at the Archives of Michigan in the State Library (702 W. Kalamazoo) in Lansing. After all the budget problems we have had in the past few years, and the very distinct possibility of the library being closed a few years ago, we are now seeing a bit of renewed interest in the history of our state.

I wrote a few weeks ago that many of the genealogical records have been transferred to the archives, and I have been there a few times to do research (as well as doing research in the main part of the library). Well, if you have been following the news, the Archives of Michigan will be open tomorrow from 10 a.m. until 4 p.m. They will have tours and research will be allowed. They are hoping for a good turnout since this will be the first Saturday they have been open in a long time.

Not only will it be good to have Saturday research time, especially for those who work Monday through Friday, but the hours will be longer than weekday hours. As an added bonus, parking is free on Saturdays. Gather your notes and join us, and maybe "lucky 13" will be the rule for your new year.

Jim Moses is a genealogy buff living in Lansing. Write to him at the Sentinel-Standard, 114 N. Depot St., Ionia, MI 48846 or email jmosesgen@gmail.com.